Two members of the far-right English Defence League have found themselves up in Portsmouth Courts in the same week for racially-aggravated harrassment and breach of bail conditions for violent assault.
Category Archives: English Defence League
BFP links up with Australian far-right racists
Having formalised its alliance with the English Defence League, the British Freedom Party is now keen to reinforce its international links. The BFP has posted an extended interview with Andrew J. Philips, chairman of the Australian Protectionist Party, who claims that the APP is a “sensible, moderate but uncompromising nationalist party”. It is in fact a far-right group specialising in anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim propaganda.
The APP’s politics can be judged by the fact that their website has reproduced material by the British National Party and featured a video of a speech by South African white supremacist Arthur Kemp, author of March of the Titans: a History of the White Race, at a time when Kemp was a leading figure in the BNP (“Another one of Arthur Kemp’s excellent speeches…not to be missed”).
You can understand why the BFP and APP might enjoy a warm relationship, because the two organisations certainly have a lot in common. The BFP’s new chairman Paul Weston has written an article entitled “The ethnic cleansing of the English”, which warns that due to “mass immigration” the “indigenous race” will be reduced to “ethnic minority status in their homeland within twenty years”.
CAIR asks FBI to probe threats posted on Bare Naked Islam website
A Muslim civil rights group on Friday asked the FBI to investigate a series of threatening posts on an anti-Islam website. The threats posted by visitors to the Bare Naked Islam website include a post from one person who urges Christians to “kill every Muslim twice” and mentions that he routinely drives by a specific northern Virginia mosque. Another recommends blowing up mosques.
In making the request, Council for American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the Internet is replete with hateful commentary about Muslims. But he said these comments differ because they routinely contain explicit calls for violence. “The Internet is a cesspool of bigoted speech, but this is something else entirely,” Hooper said.
Cambridge EDL supporter sacked as pub landlord over racist Facebook comments
A pub landlord has been sacked after racist and violent comments were posted on his Facebook page.
Ben Green, 23, ran The Salisbury Arms in Tenison Road, Cambridge, after being given the responsibility by his parents David and Angela. Green has now been sacked and barred from the premises by his parents, who are the licensees of the pub.
The comments on his Facebook page have been condemned by both them and the pub’s brewery, Charles Wells, who described them as “disgusting”.
Comments on the page attributed to Green, who is a member of the EDL, included racist chants and descriptions of how he wants to go out and fight with “dirty Muslims”. One status update describes how Green is planning to have sex with a Pakistani woman and then tell her he is an EDL supporter so that “she’ll hate herself”. One comment states: “Hate everything Islam stands for. Hate all these women in Cambridge in burkas as well.”
English Defence League prepares to storm local elections
That’s the headline to a report in the Independent on the EDL’s pact with the British Freedom Party. Matthew Goodwin, author of The New British Fascism, is quoted as saying that the EDL/BFP lash-up has “clear potential” because there is widespread opposition to immigration. Well, we’ll see. Generally I adhere to the view that nobody ever went broke underestimating the consciousness of the masses, but I can’t see voters rallying in any large numbers to a political party they’ve never heard of, which is backed by a street movement consisting of a mob of violent hooligans.
Halifax EDL rally ‘wanted men’ CCTV released by police
CCTV images have been released of 10 men police want to speak to over public order offences which took place in West Yorkshire earlier this year.
Police are investigating disorder during an English Defence League (EDL) demonstration in Halifax on 9 July. So far six people have been arrested for public offences related to the disturbance. West Yorkshire Police are urging anyone who recognises the men or has information to contact the police.
‘The Queen hosts a halal state banquet’ shock
The Queen held a halal state banquet at Buckingham Palace for Turkish President Abdullah Gul tonight and promised British backing for his country’s bid to join the European Union.
She celebrated ever-closer political and economic ties between the two nations, despite concerns over allowing the predominantly Asian and Muslim country into the EU.
“We have come through a great deal together to develop what is, today, a very modern partnership,” she said. “In Europe, the British Government remains committed to working with you to secure your place in the European Union.”
The 85-year-old monarch and 170 British and Turkish guests sat down to a completely halal state banquet of lamb from the royal estate at Windsor in the palace ballroom.
“It’s a matter of politeness that it’s halal. The President and his wife are guests of the Queen. We wouldn’t do a separate menu for them so everyone eats the same,” a palace spokeswoman said.
EDL man jailed for racial harassment fails to get sentence reduced
An English Defence League supporter who was jailed for chanting racist slogans at Muslim worshippers failed to get his sentence cut. Daniel Philip Parker, 39, shouted slogans including “Muslim bombers off our streets” near Barnsley’s Muslim Community Centre after returning from an EDL rally in Blackburn in April.
In September, following a guilty plea to religiously aggravated harassment, Parker, of Prince Arthur Street, Barnsley, was jailed for eight months at Sheffield Crown Court. He appealed, but was told by two senior judges at London’s Court of Appeal that the eight-month term was justified for such a serious incident.
Judge Michael Mettyear QC said Parker was of good character and had shown remorse for his actions, but his offence was too serious to merit a cut in the sentence.
“It goes without saying that conduct such as the appellant’s is regarded as very serious, particularly so when it is seen in the light of the conduct of those others in his party, who were behaving at least as badly as he was. Fortunately, serious violence did not erupt, but it is easy to see how a major reaction could have resulted from such disgraceful and frightening behaviour.”
Barnsley Chronicle, 21 November 2011
Meanwhile, EDL supporters have reportedly attacked protestors at the Occupy Bristol camp.
And (via Expose) here is a post from the EDL’s Facebook page (it has since been removed).
English Defence League forms alliance with far-right British Freedom Party
Yesterday the English Defence League held its “Way Forward” meeting in Birmingham. It had been widely predicted beforehand that Stephen Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) would announce he was standing down from the EDL leadership in order to pursue electoral politics as a member of the far-right British Freedom Party. According to this report, things didn’t quite work out like that. Lennon declared that he did not consider himself to be the leader of the EDL (contrary to numerous statements he has made in the past) but stopped short of offering his formal resignation. And he stated only that he “may elect to join British Freedom” some time next year. However, the EDL did agree to endorse the BFP and “will utilise their divisional structure to support British Freedom”.
EDL mosque protest thug told to do more unpaid work
A thug who was lucky to avoid going to jail after trouble flared at a protest outside a mosque has been back in court for breaching his community order.
Blaise Silvester was given a two-month curfew and told to do 100 hours of unpaid work after a demonstration outside the Jami Mosque in Victoria Road North, Southsea, got out of hand.
Sentencing him in June, Judge Graham White said the 21-year-old could normally have gone to jail. But a mistake by the probation service meant the judge’s hands were tied and he had to hand Silvester a community order.